What is your background?
I am now 34 years old. I left Congo at a very young age and have lived my entire life in France and Belgium. After gaining professional experience at Accenture and the SNT group, I became an entrepreneur in Belgium in the events industry. In 2016, I decided to move to Congo, where I launched CINEKIN.
The first theater opened in 2017. What motivated you to create it? How would you assess its success today?
When I arrived, I realized that the only way for people to watch movies was to buy them on DVD in poor quality (screeners). That's how people here in Congo watched movies, and what's more, on their mobile phones. Despite a population of 12 million, no movie theaters had opened in the country. There were places dedicated to screening films, but no real movie theaters as we know them in Europe. As an enthusiast, I decided to revive cinema and bring the seventh art to the Congolese people. I wanted to build a place where families could come to be entertained, learn, and cultivate their minds. So I created CINEKIN.
The Cinekin network now consists of three movie theaters.
What are the attendance figures? What is the audience profile?
The first theater was inaugurated in December 2017. If we want to take stock, we have sold more than 150,000 movie tickets in two years. Today, we are the leaders in the Congolese market, but also pioneers in the field of movie theater complexes. We were the first to build a cinema complex in all of French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa.
From a strategic point of view, when we launched CINEKIN, we wanted to target connoisseurs first, the part of the population that was already passionate about cinema. It seemed easier to sell the concept of a movie theater to people who love cinema.
The majority of the working population had never been to a movie theater. Most of them wondered, "Why pay for a movie ticket when I can watch movies on TV?" So we had to educate people, and to do that, it was obvious that we had to target movie lovers first in order to then attract the entire working population and create a trend. These "connoisseurs" were part of the diaspora, expatriates, executives, people who had the opportunity to travel and who, on the whole, knew about cinema. But today, we want to change our strategy.
Do you have any other plans to open movie theaters?
We are working on a new project, a new concept for movie theaters that will allow us to better tailor our offering to the working population. We are talking about movie theaters with a business model, in terms of price and design, that is much more suited to the mass market.
What role does the distribution of African content play in your programming policy? What genres of films are most successful?
At Cinekin, our mission is to offer the best possible cinema experience to the population, but our vision is to build a film industry in the DRC, and for that to happen, people need to love cinema. For them to love cinema, we need movie theaters and we need to program films that they want to see. Our initial strategy was therefore focused on programming and distributing blockbusters that would appeal to everyone. We wanted to ensure that Congolese people had an exclusive cinema experience, with successful films and theatrical releases at the same time as in the United States.
As for African content, we strongly encourage and always invite producers to send us their work, but there is one fundamental condition: these films cannot be released outside Africa before they are released in the DRC. We want to offer Congolese people a cinema experience at the same time as the rest of the world, because we have to respect global programming.
New movie theaters are being built all over French-speaking sub-Saharan Africa. How do you see this proliferation of movie theaters? As an opportunity or a threat?
I see this revival of movie theaters as both an opportunity and a threat.
The arrival of several players on the market will be an opportunity insofar as it will create more collaborations. In Paris, there are 433 movie theaters. If one theater has a problem with a film, the other 432 theaters can save it. Here, we are isolated, so the slightest difficulty can impact us.
It can also be a threat if dumping occurs. It is therefore up to the government to take responsibility and regulate the market. Non-African companies cannot come here and offer prices that are not in line with the rest of the market, to the detriment of other established players. If theaters and players continue to multiply, the government will have to play a regulatory role and not give preference to foreign companies at the expense of local ones.
Beyond economics and politics, this revival of movie theaters motivates me because it means we are on the right track. The arrival of major players on the continent can only be a good sign. It will stimulate local production, push players in the industry to improve, and push them to strive for excellence in order to face the competition.
What role does the state play today in the development of cinema?
Today, we do not yet feel that governments are aware of or involved in the development of African cinema. But that is simply because there are still too few movie theaters today.
We will need the government's help, particularly in terms of creating movie theaters, training, and production assistance. We must realize that cinema can promote a country internationally; it is a mirror of a country and a society. It is therefore necessary to support it. Today, Africa suffers from this poor representation, even though there are so many positive things happening on the continent. The film industry must develop locally to reflect this. Cinema is also very good for a country's economy. Just look at South Africa and Nigeria, which today are major players in the continent's film industry. Cinema can contribute to the well-being of a country and its population, as it is a tool for educating people, entertaining them, and bringing them together.
Do you think that the revival of movie theaters can accompany the development of African cinema?
Yes, because in other countries, one of the main sources of funding for producers remains linked to revenue from movie theaters. In French-speaking Africa, we are increasing the number of producers but not the number of movie theaters, which I think is a negative thing. The more new movie theaters we open, the more points of contact there will be between supply and demand, and the more producers will be able to make a living from their profession. With a solid network of movie theaters, producers will be able to gain local recognition and then expand internationally. This will enable us to support the development of the film industry on the continent without depending on American blockbusters. We must create the necessary infrastructure for African cinema to flourish on the continent first and, as a bonus, abroad.
Read our full report on cinema in French-speaking Africa
.